


Riptide

by kelseynix26



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, F/M, M/M, mer!blue, mermaid, noah and henry are interns, researchers!gansey adam and ronan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2017-01-26
Packaged: 2018-08-30 23:09:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8553271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelseynix26/pseuds/kelseynix26
Summary: Blue just sank down to the bottom of her tank, level with the floor of the adjacent room. All she did was stare at them, nothing to attract note or attention, but she was sure it wouldn’t last long. She was most likely the first merperson to get captured in the history of the sea. Not the first to be seen, clearly, as shown by thousands of myths and paintings, but she was the first to be stupid enough to get caught. Idiot, she cursed to herself. This is what I get for trying not to be practical. After about a minute or so of Blue remaining motionless in the tank, one of the men—the princely one with the journal—glanced up at the tank. Behind his glasses, his eyes widened at her. He tapped the tan boy with the laptop in rapid hits, one hand grabbing at his hair. “Parrish,” he said, “Lynch! She’s awake!”This was not good, this was so far from good.





	1. Chapter 1

This was wrong.

The water Blue woke up in lacked any sort of current at all, nothing she could feel or amplify. It was as if the entire ocean had become stagnant; broken. And besides that, it was light. The depth of the ocean where she and her mother and aunts lived was dark and sometimes hard to see through. This water was barely tinged a light aqua. Rising from where she had laid in the sand, Blue slowly and carefully began to swim forward, her tail moving back and forth in wide, sweeping motions. There were no currents to make stronger, so she was swimming at a much slower speed than usual. Everything in her body felt off, on edge. The water she displaced seemed to almost come right back at her.

It wasn’t until she reached a transparent wall that she understood why.

She wasn’t in the ocean. She was in a tank, in a room, in a building, on land. With humans. And it was clear how out of place she was, how foreign—how much she didn’t belong here.

Through the glass, Blue could see the heads of humans bent over—shit, what had her mother called them? Think, Blue, think—computers! They paid her no attention, content to type away on little buttons, human eyes glued to the screens. She cocked her head to the side, observing the room before her. There weren’t all that many people there in general, maybe only ten or so. Three of them sat near the front of the room, separate from the rest. Only one of them had a computer, and it was a smaller, portable one. He bent over it, glaring at the screen as though he had a vendetta against it. The one next to him wasn’t doing anything himself, just watching the tan one intently. The final one was bent over a book, one with thick cream pages. He had a pencil in his hand and another one tucked behind his ear, glasses sliding down his straight nose. Blue watched him with disdain; he looked too perfect, too princely. 

Blue just sank down to the bottom of her tank, level with the floor of the adjacent room. All she did was stare at them, nothing to attract note or attention, but she was sure it wouldn’t last long. She was most likely the first merperson to get captured in the history of the sea. Not the first to be seen, clearly, as shown by thousands of myths and paintings, but she was the first to be stupid enough to get caught.  _ Idiot _ , she cursed to herself.  _ This is what I get for trying not to be practical.  _

After about a minute or so of Blue remaining motionless in the tank, one of the men—the princely one with the journal—glanced up at the tank. Behind his glasses, his eyes widened at her. He tapped the tan boy with the laptop in rapid hits, one hand grabbing at his hair. “Parrish,” he said, “Lynch! She’s awake!”

This was not good, this was  _ so far  _ from good. 

He sat down to match her eye level before a wide grin appeared on his lips. He placed his hand on the glass of the tank, spreading his fingers out. Ha,  _ yeah _ . Like Blue would ever bother to please this guy. She pursed her lips and crossed her arms. Behind the king-like man, the paler, crueler looking one barked a laugh before being smacked into silence by a tanned, freckled hand.

Rolling his eyes, the man in front of her pointed towards the ceiling, then to Blue, and then to the ceiling again. He pointed to himself as well before rising and leaving the room. Blue could hear heavy thuds on something metal, the sound ascending through the water, coming from higher and higher until it stopped. She could hear a door open near the top of her tank. 

_ Up _ , he had signaled. Blue was determined not to give the man the satisfaction—until her stomach growled. Logically, she knew that in order to get fed, she’d have to listen to him. But damn, did she not want to. Begrudgingly, she swam up to the surface and let her head breach the water.

The man stood there, smiling, happy as all get out. He held a bucket in his hand, hopefully full of food, that he set down on the floor beside him. Behind him stood the other two men-in-charge, the tall angry one and the solemn-looking tan one. The latter held a clipboard and a pen, while the former just watched with a haphazardly placed sneer on his face. 

“Hi,” the one in front of her said. She turned her attention back to him, giving him her best scowl. At least she could understand him. English was an easy enough language to know, anyway, as she was raised right off the coast of Virginia. Her mother insisted on teaching her. 

He stepped forward confidently until the toes of his shoes—ugly, ugly shoes, Blue noticed, even though she hadn’t seen many shoes in her time—were flush up against the end of the platform. “Gansey,” he pointed to himself, then pointed at the two behind him. “Adam Parrish. Ronan Lynch.” Ah, yes. Parrish and Lynch.

Adam offered a small wave to her before ducking his head, his cheeks pink. Ronan made no move to say hello, just continued glowering at her. If anything, his expression became a little tenser.

“Can she talk?” Adam asked quietly, taking a couple steps forward to meet Gansey on the deck. “I mean, are her vocal chords adapted to speaking above the water?” His blue eyes were wide, and pretty enough to belong to a girl. They actually reminded her of the daytime sky, a treat she used to swim up to the surface to see. Her heart always yearned for her to be able to swim in the sky, amongst the clouds in the day and the delicate stars at night. Her mother had taught her all the constellations: Ursa Major, Leo, Cepheus, and so on. Constellations she may never see again. She frowned at Adam.

“Can she even fucking understand us?” Ronan growled from the doorway, leaning against the frame, his muscled arms crossed over his chest, his fingers playing with a set of leather wristbands. “I mean, c’mon, speaking won’t get us anywhere if she doesn’t even know what’s going on.” 

Gansey rolled his eyes before sitting on the edge of the deck, his feet dangling over the water. It flashed in Blue’s mind how easy it would be to pull him in. But if she tried to drown him, it would definitely become much more difficult to get food. She  _ hated  _ how her survival rested in the hands of these humans.

“Can you?” he asked her. “Understand us, I mean?” Blue kept her face even, though her brows continued to furrow. At her lack of response, he turned to face Ronan. “I’m sure she’s intelligent, notice her expression. She probably rivals a dolphin’s intellect, judging by the looks of her.”

Blue scoffed. A  _ dolphin _ , for Christ’s sake! At the noise, Ronan’s scowl increased slightly as he eyed her—shit, had her noise given her understanding away? Gansey remained wide and hopeful with optimism, the implications of her sound going right over his head. 

“What should we call you?” Adam asked, speaking directly to her for the first time. The clipboard was clutched against his chest, the pen dangling loosely between his fingers. His head was cocked to the side as he took one more step closer to the edge of the concrete deck. He didn’t get close enough for her to reach, unlike Gansey, unwilling to show that much trust to a mermaid he’d just met. Blue didn’t blame him, not one bit. In her mind, Gansey getting so close made him a fool. A pretty fool, but a fool nonetheless.

Instead of answering, Blue just jerked her chin at Gansey’s legs. The man blushed a little at her direct reference to him. Adam squinted and a wrinkle pinched between his eyebrows, mouth tense. This was an expression he must wear all too often. Blue could practically see the gears in his head turning, until he finally understood. “She wants to know why you’re so close.”

“Yeah, Dick,” Ronan sneered, his teeth sharklike, “she could easily drag your ass into the tank.”

Ignoring his caustic words, Gansey leaned in even closer to Blue, reaching his hand out to touch her shoulder. Blue jerked away from him. Touching was  _ strictly  _ against Blue’s policy—especially in a situation such as this one. He leaned back, almost sadly, before straightening his back and forcing his face into a mask of calm.

“I want you to know right off the bat that I trust you.” His quiet voice had a power, Blue decided. He was very skilled at manipulation, even if it wasn’t on purpose. Blue knew that he was just trying to get in good with her in order to help him in the long run, but it didn’t stop the warmth spreading through her chest. “And hopefully you will learn to trust me.” Gansey took the bucket and dumped a couple of live fish into the tank for Blue to catch later. He then got up, stepping away from the edge of the tank.

Adam hastily jotted down a few things on his paper. Ronan, having brought nothing of his own to write with, tapped Adam’s bicep and mumbled something. Adam nodded before writing that down as well.  _ They’re taking notes, for crying out loud! _ Blue realized. The observations did nothing to ease her sense of foreboding; they just made her feel objectified, trapped. A thing in a tank.

“Anyway,” Gansey said, snapping her attention back to him. “Like I said, I’m Gansey, I’m the head marine biologist here at the Aglionby Research Facility. Those two are marine biologists as well, and will check up on you occasionally. We have interns, too, who might bring you food. They’ll most likely not interact with you as much, though. If you need anything, or want to know anything, don’t hesitate to… ask. Or something.” He grinned sheepishly before nodding at the door. Ronan pushed it open and Adam walked out under his arm before Ronan followed. Gansey whispered something under his breath before leaving too.

Unsettled, Blue sank back down into the cool waters of the tank. The fish were swimming around madly, dismayed at her reappearance under the water. They struggled a bit, scattering and hiding behind bits of kelp before Blue caught one in her hand. 

_ Did they do anything to you?  _ Blue asked it telepathically. She cradled it carefully, already regretful that she’d have to eat it, kill it in front of its family. Usually she just ate vegetation, or animals one of her aunts had already killed and brought home for her. Never,  _ never _ had she done the killing herself. 

_ No _ , it replied.  _ Let me go?  _ Her heart broke just a little bit.

_ I’m sorry. I can’t _ , Blue told it before biting its head off. Tendrils of red snaked around the water as Blue finished devouring the fish and searching for another one. She came upon the wall, all three men as well as two interns standing behind it. The gaunt, blonde intern had his mouth hanging open before whispering, “wicked.”

Adam carefully wrote something on his paper, Ronan looking over his shoulder before writing something on his own (why he had finally gotten one, Blue didn’t know). Gansey considered her carefully before backing away from the wall. Was he disgusted? Blue couldn’t really find it in herself to care; she was disgusted at the ethics of keeping a mermaid like her in a small tank like this. She caught herself another fish and ate it whole, her eyes never leaving his retreating form.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Blue meets Noah, and Ronan makes a discovery.

Blue’s first night  _ awake  _ at Aglionby was especially uneventful. One by one, the researchers had turned off their computers, shrugged on their coats, and waved goodbye to their coworkers. Their feet hit the ground in an ungraceful, thudding manner that reverberated through the tank’s water. Gansey was the last to leave, later than all the others, and slightly more graceful; his steps were careful, purposeful. Before putting his jacket on, keys clutched in his hand, he approached Blue’s tank, tapping his fingers lightly on the glass. “Bye,” he had whispered in his thick Virginia accent before turning the room’s lights off and exiting. 

Only the backup lights were left, dim and orange, casting odd shadows through her tank. No one else came in to see her for the entire night, though from what she could hear, there were at least two people stationed outside of the room. If she listened especially hard, she could identify weight shifting, or the occasional whisper between two guards switching positions; but no one ever came to see her, or feed her, for that matter. All the better, Blue figured; all she wanted was for them to let her go, or at the very least leave her alone. 

Still, the tank was cold, and Blue had devoured every fish in a crazed hunger earlier in the day. She didn’t know how long she’d been in captivity, how long it had been since her last meal, so she ate every single fish in record time. So she was alone, not even the current or the whispers of the moon to keep her company. Only the dingy lights in the main room and a single, fluorescent white bulb above her tank. It was a pseudo-moon, not good enough and too bright to be real. 

Blue swam over to the space underneath the deck; it formed a sort of concrete cave, and the sand there was as soft as the sand in the rest of the tank, but it offered her much more privacy. The way the seaweed was organized made a wall between the rest of the sparse tank and the little hollow. She laid down on her back, her tail settling to the ground in one final fall. Sand kicked up around her, brushing her cheeks until settling back down on top of her scales. She closed her eyes and tried her best not to think or dream of home.

The next morning was terrible, too. Blue woke to the sound of a shutting door, one a couple hundred feet away. It wasn’t a door that led directly into the computer room. Usually a heavy sleeper, Blue couldn’t rest easy, so she was on high alert. Any minimal sound made caught her immediate attention,  _ including  _ the door. Someone was coming.

The last one to leave was the first one to arrive again, tidy and freshly-washed since last night. Gansey walked back into the room hours later with the thin blond intern in tow. They set their things down at their respective seats, paying little attention to Blue before crossing the room to the staircase on the side of her tank. She could hear their footsteps getting higher, so she met them at the top of the tank, a careful scowl already placed on her face. In the sea, it was an expression that sent predators running.

The two men entered the upper deck, matching expressions of shock when they saw Blue had already come up to see them. Gansey was the first to recover, his stunned jaw curving up into a little smile at the sight of Blue. “Morning, Jane,” he said, clearly pleased with himself. Blue’s eyes widened in confusion and obvious disdain. She decided right then and there  _ not  _ to respond to the name.

“Jane?” the intern asked. Exactly what she had been thinking—only she wouldn’t ask,  _ couldn’t  _ speak to these humans and let them know she understood.

“Yeah, Noah,” Gansey replied. He put one hand out as though he was expecting Noah to hand him something. Blue waited, but the blurry intern never did. Gansey must just be the kind of person who always wants something more. “You know, like Jane Doe. Because we don’t know her name.” He paused, contemplative. “I also happen to like the name Jane.” 

The intern—Noah—scoffed. “That’s so… human. Her name is probably something really cool, like Aquamarine or Blaise or something.”

Now it was Gansey’s turn to laugh as he tossed one of Blue’s breakfast fishes at Noah playfully. The blond laughed as the fish hit him in the arm, and he jumped back almost like a dance. “I’ll be going with Jane, thanks. It’s not like she can tell us her name. You have a better idea?”

Noah shrugged one shoulder, his smudgy cheek brushing against his rumpled sweater. “Jane’s cool, man,” he amended, offering Gansey his closed fist. The other man reciprocated, tapping their knuckles together. Blue watched carefully, brow furrowed. Gansey smiled at this.

“It’s a fist bump,” he offered with a golden-boy smile. 

_ Clearly _ , Blue thought, rolling her eyes,  _ what else could it be called? _

Gansey squatted down at the edge of the deck before offering her his fist, as Noah had done to him. Blue scoffed and shook her head. Her no-touching policy wouldn’t disappear overnight. Instead of tapping her fist against his, Blue gave her tail a huge  _ swoosh _ , displacing a shit ton of water that went and directly covered Gansey’s clothes mid-way up his chest. His entire bottom half was soaked, stupid shoes and pants and the lower bit of his sweater. His eyebrows shot up as he fell back on his ass, glasses sliding off and falling into the tank.

Noah laughed, his entire head moving back with the cackle. His arms went to his stomach, holding it as though the laughter would burst him right open. Gansey, on the other hand, merely watched with a somber expression as his glasses slowly sink to the bottom of the tank. Blue looked, as well, watching the small wire frames slip lower and lower through her water. 

Looking at his bleak expression, Blue’s stomach knotted a little built, and she looked at her chest, betrayed. Guilt! She actually felt  _ guilty _ ! Pursing her lips, she ducked beneath the water and slowly swam down the measly fifteen feet to where Gansey’s glasses sat half-buried in the sand. She picked them up, swimming carefully back up. Rather than hand them directly to him, she set them on the edge of the deck before backing away quickly. 

Immediately, Noah stopped laughing. Gansey just looked at her, his mouth dropped open into a shape of awe, bare eyes wide as he shifted onto his knees, picking up his glasses carefully, as though they were made of gold. Judging by the appearance of his pressed pants and incredibly soft-looking sweater, they might be. He held them up to his no-doubt poorly working eyes before drying them off on the hem of his shirt before placing them back on his incredibly straight nose. Seriously, the man could cut glass with that thing.

Then Gansey fixed his eyes on her. Behind him, Noah was a statue, a ghost, so still Blue wasn’t entirely sure he was still there. “Thank you,” he said gently, all hints of condescension gone from his rough voice. Blue just nodded once, her cheeks blazing. Noah started snickering again. Gansey twisted to look at him. “What?”

“She’s like a Sour Patch Kid,” he responded, laughing between every couple of words. “Sour, sweet, gone.” He laughed once more, holding his stomach like a child.

“Dude,” Gansey said seriously, even though the small smile tugging at his lips betrayed his true feelings. “Well, she’s not gone yet.” He turned back to face Blue, his entire expression absolutely delighted at this point. Half his mouth was pulled up in frighteningly charming crooked smile.

Ohh, Blue seriously considered ducking under the water right at that incredibly opportune moment, but Gansey hadn’t given her breakfast yet. Rolling her eyes, she pointed at the bucket. Gansey nearly pissed his pants in delight.

“Noah, did you see that?” 

“Yeah! Yeah! She pointed!”

“Write this down, write this—hang on, let me.” He pulled his thick leather journal from his pocket, the one Blue saw yesterday with the creamy pages. Up close, she could see how jam-packed it really was. Messy, cramped handwriting and glued in sketches of mermaids, and some of his own, done it thin black ink. He pulled a pen from behind his ear—incredible that Blue didn’t notice it before—and began hastily scrawling something on a new page. He mumbled with each word he wrote. “Jane—connects—food—source—to—bucket. Continued—proof—of—high—intelligence.” 

_ I can’t believe this _ , she said, swimming closer to the edge of the platform and crossing her arms over her chest, glowering at the scientist. She jerked her chin at the bucket harshly, getting across that she didn’t have time for this. Which was false; she was trapped here, she had all the time in the world. But she was hungry. And irritated. And when combined, the two traits were deadly.

While Gansey wrote, Noah shrugged again and picked up the bucket, dumping its contents into the tank. Blue nodded thanks at him before diving back underwater, eager to leave the boys and eat instead. 

After her meal, she noticed that Gansey and Noah had rejoined the rest of the people arriving in the main room. Adam and Ronan had shown up in the time she had spent above water. They were, as always, sitting next to each other. And bickering, it sounded like, albeit playfully. Gansey sauntered over to them with his journal extended, his thumb keeping his newly-started page open. Adam intently read it, while Ronan skimmed the words and then turned to glare at Blue.  _ Why all this open hostility?  _ She wondered. 

She matched Ronan’s expression, an incredibly cultivated sneer. Beside him, Adam smirked at the interaction. Ronan, however, wasn’t pleased. He pushed off the table in one savage, fluid motion, heading straight for the direction that Blue knew to be the stairs. She could hear heavy steps pounding up. Casting one last disparaging look at the stunned faces of his coworkers, Blue swam up to the surface. 

Lynch was waiting for her there, hunched against the smooth white wall, hands fisted and arms crossed, the image of insolence. When he saw her appear, he used one foot to kick off the wall, coming towards her in what could only be described as a strut. He crouched down on the edge in a squat, teeth bared. 

Blue did her best to remain calm. Ronan was no better than a shark, a callous thing, all sharp teeth and narrowed eyes. Blue decided she could be a shark, too. They stared at each other for God knows how long, neither of them relenting. Blue’s head began to hurt, but she didn’t quit. This was a test of endurance, of strength. 

Their staring match not quite ended, Ronan was the first to speak.  _ Obviously _ . His brutal lips parted before he nearly spat, “I know you can understand me. Quit lying and speak the fuck up. You’re holding us back, you’re holding  _ Gansey  _ back. I don’t care that he claps and opens champagne every time you so much as  _ blink _ ; you’re withholding information. This is all he wants, this is all he’s ever wanted, so Jesus Mary and Joseph,  _ say something. _ ”

Taken aback, Blue physically moved away from the edge of the deck. That was  _ nowhere near  _ what she’d expected. Invasive questions? Yes. Angry ranting about his life? Possible, but unlikely. But this accusation?

She should have been more careful. Should have kept her expressions even, shouldn’t have scoffed or splashed or sneered. Her stomach filled with shame as her expression hardened. She wouldn’t say anything, she  _ refused _ .

“See? Your jawline just fucking tensed. I  _ know  _ you can understand me,” Ronan repeated. He pursed his lips, waiting. Blue wouldn’t give in, just training her expression into a mask of calm, wiping all signs of tightness from her face. This was the practical thing to do, she knew it, and she resented it. 

_ Blue’s so practical _ , Maura always whispered to Calla. Her mother was a different brand of magic; all flowing dresses and unnecessary flowers and clips, gathering bottles for decorations and swimming around chasing schools of fish. Nothing Maura did was practical; she was a slave to her whims. Blue loved her mother, and longed to be like that. 

_ The last time you tried to not be practical, look where it got you, _ she reminded herself. She stared at Ronan carefully, her heart pounding with anticipation of her decision. He waited, not moving from his spot. She knew he wouldn’t leave until she acknowledged him; he wasn’t stupid. He just wasn’t as oblivious as Gansey. 

_ Don’t be practical _ , she told herself before opening her mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if you liked this chapter! Sorry to leave you on a bit of a cliffhanger, haha.
> 
> Once again, I love comments and kudos are always appreciated! Feel free to critique, I honestly can't get enough constructive criticism! 
> 
> You can find my tumblr at buesargent.tumblr.com


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue finally responds to Ronan, and then is truly introduced to Gansey.

_Ronan_

 

The second the mermaid opened her mouth, Ronan could feel _it_ coming. Gansey’s search for magic, years of him tagging along looking for her, and she was in front of him, and it was _starting_ .

“What do you want?” the mermaid spat. It was abrasive, a slap in the face. The curves of Ronan’s mouth pulled up, his eyebrows turning downwards even as he grinned. They were two sides of the same coin. He felt dangerous; he made sure she knew it.

He took a few steps forward, slowly, maddeningly. He knew the girl was ready to leap out of her skin, he could see it in her posture, but to his amazement, she didn’t back down. He crouched down on the platform, just a little farther than her arms could reach. His fingers were loosely intertwined as he leaned even closer to her, his face the epitome of insolence. “Help Gansey,” he said, his voice low. Through the murky waters of the tank, he could see Adam and Gansey watching him. “That’s all I want. But if you don’t, I’ll know, and there’ll be hell to pay. Got it?”  

His voice was grating, a train screeching to a halt, the crash of a shopping cart tipping over in a parking lot. He sounded like scrapes and cuts that were healing, hardening over, nothing pretty to look at.

To her credit, Blue leaned even closer to him, her forehead almost coming up to the lip of the deck. “First of all, get out of my face.”

“What if I don’t?” he fired back. He was hovering so close to her; he could smell the salt rolling off the water, and if his hair was still cut long, the curls would have gone insane.

The door banged open behind him. Ronan knew who it was without even looking.

“Ronan,” came Gansey’s voice.

Ronan stood, his back straightening concurrently with his legs as he rose. He stalked over to Gansey, who had since moved out of the door frame. He moved in close so his lips were by Gansey’s ear. The man didn’t stiffen, used to Ronan’s proximity by now after years of them crouched in his car, in caves, on boats in tiny holds. “You might want to try speaking to her again.”

And with that, he brushed out of the room.

 

_Blue_

 

Blue couldn’t hear what Ronan whispered to Gansey, but she knew it wasn’t pretty. She could practically see all of the ways Ronan could hurt her if she didn’t talk to Gansey. He could cut off the food supply, dissect her, poison her water… the possibilities were endless and cruel. She wanted to believe that he wouldn’t have it in him, but there was no way to be sure, no way to be safe.

Gansey took a few careful steps toward her, his Top-Siders thudding on the painted white cement. His thumb brushed over his bottom lip, his well-loved leather journal tucked between his bicep and his ribs. Every look he gave her was pensive; hopeful, even. Once again, he moved until he sat on the edge of the deck, his legs dangling above her. His shoes were even more atrocious up close.

Gansey folded his hands and placed them on his lap, shoulders hunched and head tilted so he could look at her. “What did he mean?” he asked carefully. From the main room, Blue could almost feel the weight of Ronan’s stare on her tail.

Reluctance was hot in Blue’s throat. “I’m practical,” she said. Gansey’s eyes widened into dinner plates and his jaw tensed, a muscle twitching on the side. “But I was reckless, and now I’m here. And I’m being reckless now.”

It was minutes before Gansey could reply. Blue watched his mind twist, bending around the facts. His hand twitched and reached for his journal several times, but he never opened it, never wrote anything down, even though Blue knew this was big news for him.

“And do you like being reckless?” he whispered. Blue looked up at him, surprised by his words. _He’s asking about your feelings,_ she noticed, _not what you are or your anatomy or anything._ It was so far from the researcher she’d seen these past couple of days.

“I’m beginning to think it’s not all that bad,” she admitted, cheeks blazing. Gansey looked down at his lap, a small smile pecking at his lips.

“How is it you know English?” he asked. Ah, _finally_. The scientist questions, the things she’d expected—hell, hoped for—if only because they were less invasive.

“My mother taught me,” Blue replied. “I wanted to learn, and she said it’d be important in the future. Now I know why.”

“Are mermaids psychic?”

“Just my family,” she said.

“Not you?”

Blue shook her head sadly. She wished she was psychic. It’s all she’d ever wanted, really; to see what they saw, to know what her mother and Calla and Persephone knew. “I just make things louder for them.”

Gansey laughed. “You’re the table everyone wants at Starbucks,” he mumbled, loud enough for her to hear, even though it seemed he was making a joke just to himself.

“I don’t know what that is.”

“No, I suppose you wouldn’t.”

Blue watched him then, the way his thumb gently stroked the spine of his journal, the bloom of blood in his cheeks, the slight kicking of his legs. He was everything. Calm, but on fire inside. Young and old, all at once. His face was smooth and free of lines, but there was an antiquated look about him, a timeless man in a world that revolved around nothing but fleeting time.

“Why did you want to learn, if you don’t mind my asking.”

“There was a man,” she said. “Months ago. Human. He was standing on this huge ship, right around where my family and I live. Off the coast of Virginia.” Gansey straightened a bit, leaning in even closer to her, fingers resting on the bridge of his nose and his brow bone. Blue closed her eyes and let her heart sigh. Her mind filled with images, memories. The ocean wind had been whipping his already tousled brown hair. She could tell by the way he’d stood that he wasn’t unfamiliar with boats, that he’d probably spent a good portion of his life on board.

Blue had swam up closer than she should have, staying underwater because it was the safe thing to do. But the man was leaning over the side, and even though waves were crashing against the ship’s hull, she could hear him talking.

“He was speaking, and I couldn’t understand what he was saying. He sounded impassioned. Like he had a purpose, a goal he hadn’t reached yet.” She let out a little laugh; this was more than she’d ever spoken aloud in her life; her throat burned with disuse, her voice scratchy and unpleasant.

“Do you remember what he said?” he asked carefully. He watched Blue intently, as though his entire life relied on this particular moment. As though his heart was weightless.

She hadn’t thought about this moment in months; she didn’t know what he was saying then, but now, she could remember the form his words had taken, the shape of them hanging in the air.

 _“Ask me what I found.”_ the man had said. His voice wasn’t sharp or irritated; more like the dulled sound of annoyance.

 _“Did you find anything?”_ someone else on board had shouted back dutifully. Their voice was thick, rich, heavy with twang that made it even more curious for Blue to listen to.

 _“Absolutely nothing,”_ the man leaning over the side had replied. _“Schools of fish. Some birds; seagulls; a pelican or two, I think. It is breeding season for them.”_

 _“Is that all?”_ the other person had shouted.

_“That’s all there is.”_

“I’d never seen one before,” Blue mused. “A human, I mean. It was thrilling, so I listened. I listened as hard as I could.” She rubbed her forehead a bit. “He said, ‘That’s all there is.’”

Gansey looked positively spooked. “When was this exactly?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. A few months ago. Two. April, I think? The end of April?”

Blue thought back to the day it happened. The man on the ship had been leaning over the side, something cradled in his hands. It reminded Blue of the way Gansey held his journal, as though it was every part of him trapped into a little book. She looked up at him now, at the little book that suddenly seemed incredibly familiar.

“Gansey,” she said. Saying his name out loud felt stranger than she’d thought it would have. “Were you on that ship?”

Gansey rested his thumb on his bottom lip. His hazel eyes locked with hers as he slowly nodded. Blue could see tension in the set of his shoulders, the way his fingers clutched his journal that much tighter. “I don’t believe in coincidences,” he said.

“Neither do I,” she replied. “Especially not since my mother told me that I would end up here.” Not here, specifically, Blue remembered. Her mother didn’t deal in specifics. But she had told Blue time and time again that she’d need to know English. Even more worrying, every woman in her family had told her at one point or another that if she kissed her true love, she would shift and he would die. _Human_. She was fated to be human, and it made her stomach roll. Not that she hated humans; but she loved her family too much to leave them.

Gansey took a deep breath. “I’m here to learn,” he said, looking at his journal. The leather was soft, worn after years of being opened and carted around. There were even scratches on the cover, white lines as thick as pencil marks. The thin leather string around it was as tight as it could be to contain its madness. “Just… look it over, and don’t get it wet?” He passed it to her and she took it wordlessly. Her heart tripped when their fingers brushed. She could see the emotion in his eyes, the thoughts of _this is not allowed._ “We’ll talk later, I guess. Thanks, Jane.”

Gansey stood and was almost to the the door when she spoke again. “Blue,” she said.

He stopped, twisting to glance over his shoulder. “I’m sorry?”

She swam closer to the edge of the deck and set the journal carefully on it, resting her hand on the cover. “My name. It’s Blue.”

He stopped for a moment before a hesitant smile spread over his lips. “That’s weird,” he said, a low laugh escaping.

“And Gansey isn’t?”

He chuckled. It was lighter than early morning sunshine, and she felt even more weightless in her tank. “Thanks, Blue.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope the dialogue was okay :) I hope I can keep true enough to the book with this plot; Adam and Ronan are non-magical, and Noah is alive, but there will be ley lines and sacrifices later on so Yikes! Comment/Kudos/Critiques appreciated!
> 
> www.buesargent.tumblr.com


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys come in for a conversation, and Blue gets to look through Gansey's journal.

Blue spent the rest of the day kicking her tail back and forth in order to stay above the water. It was tiring, that was for sure, but she was too invested in Gansey’s journal to take a break from it. Her fingers traipsed between the heavy pages, eyes drinking in everything he’d made over the past few years.

First off were the drawings. They varied greatly, and only four or five of them actually resembled actual merfolk. Most of them left out the nearly translucent fins on the sides of her forearms, as well as the two that jutted out the sides of her turquoise tail. Some of them got it very wrong, adding a dorsal fin down her spine and ignoring the hair that grew from their heads. Some had too many fins, some not enough. 

Gansey’s own artwork varied, too. He had one pretty accurate sketch, but he’d added an extra set of fins on her tail. He’d also drawn what Blue realized were the reefs around Virginia, ones you’d have to go miles offshore to find. He’d even marked caves on maps, some Blue knew and some Blue didn’t.

Compiled in the front of the journal was practically every myth that included mermaids; the full story, all the names, date and country of origin, some small sketches, and several underlined words. Blue couldn’t read but recognized the names and countries when they appeared. Mermaids shared their history, often as bedtime stories for little kids or scarier stories the teenagers told each other. 

Finally, Gansey came back, walking slowly towards the edge of the tank. Blue hadn’t gone under in a while, and Gansey smiled a bit when he saw her dry hair. It was short, black, and cut bluntly with a knife. Her mother had done it a month or two ago, and Blue liked the choppiness of it. 

She set the book on the edge of the deck.

“What did you think? Is it right?”

Blue blushed. “I mostly looked at the pictures. I...can’t exactly  _ read _ .”

Gansey, who had already started perusing through the journal again, looked up suddenly. “Oh.  _ Oh _ ,” he said his cheeks turning red as a bashful expression took over his face. Blue caught wind of it before Gansey quickly replaced it with a mask. “I didn’t realize, my apologies. It didn’t even occur to me.”

_ Of course it didn’t _ , Blue thought. “Anyway, lots of the art is wrong. I’m sure you know what my fins and stuff look like, now that you’ve caught me in a net and threw me in a tank.”

Gansey’s embarrassment deepened. “I’m so sorry. I-I didn’t think. I’ve been after this truth my whole life. And you’ve been after knowledge on humans for a while, haven’t you? Since April?”

Blue was speechless, her mouth hanging open just slightly so she could taste the salt coming off the water. “How about this: you answer my questions, and I’ll answer yours. Deal?” She stuck her hand out, which Gansey balked at for only a moment before taking it. Their handshake was firm, and Blue liked the feeling of the human’s warm, dry skin.

The door opened as Blue and Gansey dropped their arms. It was Adam and Ronan, the former carrying a notebook and the latter carrying an air of insolence.

“Hey, Blue,” Adam said quietly, testing her name out for himself. “You remember my name?”

“I’m not stupid,” Blue snapped. Adam immediately backed down, shrinking into himself as his back pressed against the door to the stairs. Her stomach filled with lead. “Adam,” she conceded, trying hard to make her voice soft. This boy was more breakable than the others, it seemed, especially when it came to confrontation.

“I’m sorry,” Adam said, his Southern accent thicker and dirtier than Gansey’s. 

All anyone seemed to say to her was sorry. She turned on Ronan, the only one who certainly would never apologize. He was holding a portable computer with him, but one with only a screen and no keyboard.

“Ronan,” she said curtly, fire spitting between her teeth as she spoke.

“Maggot,” he replied. Adam elbowed him, to which Ronan added a dazzling, sharp-toothed grin.

“Adam, get ready to write,” Gansey said, and that was it. The tension in the room dissolved as Adam stepped closer to the tank, but not close enough for her to touch him. Ronan followed, staying standing even when Adam sat with his legs crossed and notebook in hand. “You can go first,” Gansey allowed.

“Okay. What are those things in the sky, like birds? The ones that make loud noises as they pass?”

“Oh. Planes? Or, helicopters, maybe?” Gansey tried. Blue shrugged, and Gansey took the little screen from Ronan and tapped it a few times. Eventually, he pulled up pictures, two of the flying things. One was bigger and the other had large wings on top. “The first one’s a plane, the second a helicopter. They carry cargo or people over the ocean, or simply from one place to another.” He set the computer by his side. “My turn. How many mermaids are there?”

“Thousands. Millions. There are colonies all over the world, some in the deepest parts of the ocean. Most live in relatively shallow waters, ones near caves and reefs. Like mine.”

Adam started writing on his paper, frantically as though Blue wouldn’t repeat it. She probably wouldn’t.

“And how many are in a colony?”

“Hold on there,” Blue said. “It’s my turn.” There were so many questions about the human world Blue was dying to ask, but something more important tugged at her. “Can you teach me how to read?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the eternally long wait, and the relatively short update. I'll try and keep working on this story!
> 
> buesargent.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> ok so this is my first published work on AO3! Comments/critiques/kudos are always welcome (encouraged, even). 
> 
> you can find my tumblr at www.caliypso.tumblr.com if you wanna follow my blog!


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